Senate Judiciary Committee advances public-financing bills, judiciary budget and criminal-law measures; expungement transmission deferred

The Senate Committee on Judiciary advanced a slate of bills on April 23 that would reshape campaign-finance administration, add funds and positions to the judiciary, and update criminal statutes addressing fentanyl and a proposed torture offense, while deferring a technical expungement transmission measure for further coordination.

The committee voted to pass SB 51, the comprehensive public-financing proposal, with amendments that delay the program start date to 2028 and ask that staffing and appropriation details be put in the committee report rather than fixed in the bill. Gary Kam, representing the Campaign Spending Commission, told the committee, "the Hawaii election campaign fund has a balance as of the end of last year of little under $2,200,000 and that is nowhere near enough to, pay for a comprehensive public funding program." Committee action made the proposed new staff positions permanent in committee reporting and directed a later effective date for the program.

The committee also approved SB 118, which establishes a permanent investigator position for the Campaign Spending Commission, after the commission explained it has not had an investigator since a prior appropriation lapsed and that lawyers on staff are currently fulfilling investigative duties. "We just we need an investigator," Kam said, adding that contested-case hearings create conflicts when attorneys are also witnesses.

On the judiciary budget, the committee passed SB 260 with amendments that add $1,000,000 to the civil legal services line (bringing that line to $2,200,000 in committee action) and increase the capital improvement program lump-sum allocation to $11,900,000 with $7,000,000 designated as a lump-sum bond fund for statewide facility needs. Brandon Kimura, director of the judiciary’s policy and planning department, said the judiciary requests operating funds including "6,170,000.00 in FY '26, '6.25 million in FY '27, 17 permanent positions, 1 temporary position" and outlined priorities including permanent specialty courts and a new Wahiawa District Court.

The committee passed SB 279, which aligns fentanyl possession thresholds with existing thresholds used for methamphetamine and other controlled substances. Daniel Hugo of the Honolulu Department of the Prosecuting Attorney said, "It takes 2 milligrams of fentanyl to kill someone," and argued the amounts in the bill are intended to distinguish personal use from quantities consistent with distribution.

The committee also moved SB 281, a bill creating a separate offense for torture-style conduct. The panel approved amendments that remove a provision criminalizing depriving a minor or vulnerable person of necessary food/water/clothing (to avoid criminalizing conduct tied to poverty), clarify that administering prescribed medications to a vulnerable person is not covered by the forced-drug provision, change the culpable mental state in one subsection from "recklessly" to "knowingly," and add the phrase "with a common state of mind" to the definition of pattern or practice. Prosecutors urged stronger law to address repeated nonfatal abuses; the Office of the Public Defender warned some language could be overly broad and urged tighter definitions and sentencing options.

The committee approved SB 176 (recount threshold adjustment) with technical clarifications requested by the Office of Elections to ensure clerks use the final initial tabulation rather than a premature 6 a.m. report to determine whether a recount is required.

SB 255 (automatic escheat of excess cash contributions over $100 if not returned within 30 days) was deferred pending action in the House. SB 345, which would strengthen the state’s partial public-financing program by increasing matching amounts and spending limits, was passed with amendments and a committee report approach similar to SB 51.

On criminal-justice administrative matters, the committee heard and advanced technical bills including SB 796 (claims against the State), with amendments to anonymize potential judgment estimates and to require the attorney general to consult with agencies when proposing timelines for corrective actions; and SB 861 (authorizing the Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center to transmit expungement orders to the judiciary), which the committee deferred to coordinate with the House and to allow the judiciary time to identify and fund an IT solution for partial-case expungement situations. William Bento of the Public Defender’s Office warned that "getting an expungement is meaningless if your name and your, arrest is still listed in that system and people can access it." Phil Higdon of the Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center and staff from the judiciary explained that system limitations currently prevent selective redaction of individual defendants or discrete counts in multiparty, multi-count cases, and the committee requested a report and appropriation language to study a software fix.

Votes and committee instructions: the committee reported most measures passed with amendments or as committee-recommended, asked that appropriation amounts and position counts be left blank in bill text and recorded in the committee report where appropriate, and required several technical clarifications and implementation reports back to the legislature.

What this means next: bills that passed out of committee will proceed to the full Senate for consideration; HB/SB companion measures in the House remain in play for deferred items. The committee recorded support and opposition tallies during initial testimony periods (for example, SB 51 testimony reported 25 in support and 48 opposed with 2 comments), but floor votes and final enacted text will determine ultimate outcomes.

Ending note: committee members repeatedly stressed staffing and funding as gating items for campaign-finance and expungement implementation, and asked agencies to return with technical fixes and timeline proposals before final appropriation language is adopted.